September 25, 2010

Le Philou in the 10th; charming, good and reasonable.

6.0 Le Philou, 12, ave Richerand in the 10th, 01.42.38.00.13, closed Sundays and Mondays is a place spotted on her dog-walks, by my former co-host at a website that will go unmentioned. One is always looking in vain for good places near the terribly branche Canal St Martin since the late, great Garance closed and this could well be it.

I entered a brightly lit room with everything (food and wines by the glass, demi and liter carafe and bottle) on the ardoise; "no reservation"; my heart sank;I gave both my and my friend's name, "no rez"; yikes; "are you full?" much looking at the rez book, "ah, no" - P.S. by meal's end every seat was occupied - the word is out folks. One course is 15, 2 are 20 and 3 = 25 Euros, wines start at 3 per glass, 10 per Liter and 25 Euros per bottle.

She had the potiron soup which has now become obligatory come Fall here and it was above average by far; I had the (6 E supplement) cepes sauteed in fine olive oil on a bed of lovely greens, green beans and nuts - no herbs, spices or spins here, just plain good grub.

Then she had the leg of lamb which I, a leg of lamb expert, thought was the best I'd had in years (albeit not raw and dripping blood as I prefer) and I had the (5 E supplement) perdreaux rouge (Alectoris rufa - ha, betcha didn't know that; me neither, nor that it is a red-legged or French partridge to differentiate it from the grey or English one, sez Wiki). Post-pedantry though, I can say it and its accompanying cabbage and other veggies were sublime. For such a tiny bird it delivered a lot of pleasure.

We finished up splitting a classic baba, of whose rum she thought a bit rough, while I loved it.

Our bill was 76.00 E with good bread, no bottled water, two coffees and all the supplements (which I owe her for.)

Problems John? Yah, it had no sound-dampening and I had to practically sit in her lap to hear her and the staff sure smokes a lot when given the opportunity.

Go? For sure, Colette will be here in a few weeks and it'll be tops on my list of revisits.